On Englishing the Bible

by Ronald Knox

Collection of essays relating to Knox's work translating the Old and New Testaments.

Contents:
1. Thoughts on Bible Translation
2. Some New Testament Problems
3. Justice and Scandal in the Gospels
4. Challoner and the Douay Version
5. Some Reasons Why
6. Nine Years' Hard
7. Morsu Amarissimo
8. Farewell to Machabees

Genres: Religion, Catholic, Nonfiction, Christian, Language

101 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Monsignor Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was a Roman Catholic priest, theologian, author of detective stories, as well as a writer and a regular broadcaster for BBC Radio.

Knox had attended Eton College and won several scholarships at Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1912 and was appointed chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford, but he left in 1917 upon his conversion to Catholicism. In 1918 he was ordained a Catholic priest. Knox wrote many books of essays and novels. Directed by his religious superiors, he re-translated the Latin Vulgate Bible into English, using Hebrew and Greek sources, beginning in 1936.

He died on 24 August 1957 and his body was brought to Westminster Cathedral. Bishop Craven celebrated the requiem mass, at which Father Martin D'Arcy, a Jesuit, preached the panegyric. Knox was buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church, Mells.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book about Christianity, but about the issues and difficulties of translating the Bible into English. Some sections were difficult to follow, but it was very clean in showing how tricky it is to translate the bible into a form an Englishman himself would have said it. It's not as cut and dried as I previously thought.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short collection of eight essays by Fr. Knox give excellent insights into the problems of translations in general, and of English translations of the Holy Bible in particular. He presents the rationale and principles behind his own choice of renditions in the Knox version of the Bible from the Vulgate, and whets the reader's appetite for a taste of his translation.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often rather funny, and a nice applied introduction to the difficulties of Biblical/Classics translation, philology, hermeneutics, etc.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

These essays about Knox translating the Bible are extremely interesting, but since they were given at different times in a different context, there’s a lot of repetition here. He uses the same examples over and over again, which makes for rather tedious reading at one go.

[Erin Buckner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who could have thought essays on translating the Bible could be so funny? Originally published in 1949, this collection takes us through Knox's 9 year effort to create a Bible that the average English speaker could read through in narrative form, with an utter dedication to translating the Vulgate to reveal the intended meanings instead of dressing other languages in English clothes. If you can make it through the sometimes over-the-head academic writing (certain sections assume the audience knows both Latin and French, for example), there are fascinating tidbits about the art of translation, critical responses, mistranslations that have made their way into common vernacular, and the spirit of pursuing the Word of God - all with Knox's sharp wit interspersed throughout. I literally laughed out loud in certain parts. An absolute gem of a read!